Who Is Your Master? Series

INTRODUCTION

• Today our country is in the throws of a war to help free the nation of Iraq from the oppression of their FORMER dictator err “President” Saddam Hussein. I do not know if you have some of the torture that he subjected his people to, but it is horrible to think a person could have that much evil within them.

• Whether or not you agree with the effort our country had the guts to lead, we are there to help free a nation from the throws of tyranny.

• I believe that our military did a fantastic job of dismantling the dreaded “Republican Guard” and the rest of the Iraqi military with minimal damage to the country and with little civilian causality. I want you to understand I am not getting political here, I am just making an observation about with went on.

• The problem we are facing now is, “What now?”

• Our country has given the Iraqi people the freedom that none of the other Muslim nations around them or the European community (except Great Britain) saw fit to help them with.

• Now that the people of Iraq are free, what now? In a perfect world the killing would stop and all the people would rejoice in the streets and life would go on. By the way, I have been watching some internal poling of the Iraqi people that strongly suggests the people in the country are glad we freed them, but they would like us to leave as soon as possible.

• Now is the time of decision for the nation of Iraq. What will they do with their freedom? Will they allow another tyrant to come in and oppress them? The reason our brave soldiers are still dying there is because there is a small segment of the country that wants that Hussein guy to return.

• It is hard to imagine how ANYONE would want that murderer to be in power, but some do.

• Will the nation rise up and make sure that never happens again. What will their choice be? Freedom or slavery to tyranny?

• That brings us to our message today. Last week we looked at the fact that we were too enslaved to sin. Sin was our tyrannical slave master. There was a war fought for your freedom by Jesus and the opportunity was provided for you to throw off the chains of slavery to sin.

• For those who have baptized into Christ (which is the place our slavery to sin is ultimately broken) what now? You have a choice to make. Will you allow yourselves to once again be enslaved to sin or will you take a stand and enjoy your freedom in Christ by considering yourselves dead to sin and alive to Jesus!

• Turn with me to Romans 6:12-23!

SERMON

I. YOU HAVE A CHOICE TO MAKE (12-14)

• After we are freed from the bondage of sin in our lives, we then must make a conscious decision as to what we will do with our life?

• We have two choices, we can either present the members of our body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness or we can present our bodies to God as instruments of righteousness.

• Obviously we are encouraged to present our bodies to God.

• ROMANS 12:1-2 says, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

• In verse 11 we are told we are to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God.

• The results of doing this are twofold. One, we will stop letting sin reign in our body. We will stop using our bodies as instruments of sin. Secondly we will yield only to God and we will use our bodies to glorify God.

• Verse 12 implies we have to power now to stop letting sin have a hold on us. When Paul tells them to not let sin reign, he is speaking of something they are currently doing that needs to stop now. When we are saved, we will still struggle with temptation, but the point is we are no longer slaves to sin.

• The word “reign” is a word used of a king who has total dominion over it’s’ subjects.

• This reign of sin is what is broken. We do not have to let the Devil have his way with us since the old body of sin has died and we belong to Christ.